Church Street Marketplace holiday tree is cut and ...: Deb and Jason Villemaire of Colchester donated their blue spruce to the Church Street Marketplace to become this year's holiday tree.

A worker with Demag Riggers & Cranes of Williston secures a blue spruce tree at the Deb and Jason Villemaire residence in Colchester before it was cut down Friday, November 16, 2012 to become the Church Street Marketplace holiday tree. / MATT SUTKOSKI/Free Press

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COLCHESTER — This year’s holiday tree for Burlington’s Church Street Marketplace might have already had some decorations in it before anybody removed it from a Colchester property Friday.

“It has thousands of footballs,” said Garrett Cardin, 9, watching as workers with Barrett’s Tree Service prepared to cut down the 50-foot-tall blue spruce from his family’s front lawn.

The “thousands” of footballs was hyperbole, of course, but moments before a chainsaw-wielding worker cut down the tree, Garrett’s mother, Deb Villemaire, said she wouldn’t be surprised if some balls fell out of the spruce when it was loaded onto a flatbed trailer.

Her three children lost plenty of playthings in the blue spruce’s thick branches over the years, she said.

However, to Villemaire’s astonishment, no baseballs, footballs or other sporting equipment bounced out of the spruce as Barrett’s Tree Service and Demag Riggers & Crane Service Inc. made quick work of cutting down the holiday tree.

Maybe the balls embedded in the tree would make it all the way to Burlington, speculated Jason Villemaire, Deb’s husband.

The Villemaires’ tree probably is the biggest the Church Street Marketplace has had, said Becky Cassidy, marketing consultant for the marketplace.

The Villemaires live on aptly named Evergreen Circle in Colchester. Deb Villemaire said somebody stuck a note in their door about two years ago to inquire whether they’d like to donate the tree to the Church Street Marketplace.

She said she wasn’t interested at the time. The tree, and four other evergreens on the property, afforded the family some privacy.

But the tree they ultimately donated was beginning to encroach on the driveway, was hiding some well-designed landscaping, and was, of course, eating the kids’ toys, she said. It was time for it to go, to be put to good use.

As a few neighbors aimed smartphone cameras at the tree, the sound of a chain saw erupted at its base. B.J. Barrett, vice president of Barrett, was hidden in the spruce’s lower branches, removing some of them so he had room to maneuver. Then he sank the chain saw into the tree’s trunk.

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“Bye, bye,” the Villemaires’ son Garrett said to the tree.

Soon, the tree was severed from its base. A crane attached to the top of the tree carefully, expertly moved the spruce toward a flatbed truck parked in front of the Villemaire house. Then, crews slowly tilted the spruce down so the tree reclined on the flatbed, almost ready for its trip to Burlington.

“Looks like they’ve done this a time or two,” Deb Villemaire remarked as the job progressed quickly and without mishaps.

“Very cool,” Jason Villemaire agreed.

“It took maybe 10 minutes to move something that was here for 40 years,” Deb Villemaire said. “It’s gone, but it’s for a good cause.”

Son Garrett worried about the branches that extended off the side of the flatbed and brushed the pavement. “It’s going to get road burn,” he said.

He needn’t have worried. Barrett workers used heavy-duty straps to lift the branches closer to the truck frame, up and away from the road.

After the tree was removed, the Villemaire lawn was littered with branches, twigs, spruce needles and sawdust. It looked for a moment that the three kids would have a weekend cleanup project on their hands. But no: Barrett’s workers cleaned up the mess within a few minutes.

“It’s so surreal looking at that empty spot right now,” Deb Villemaire said.

The spruce, secure on the flatbed, got a police escort down Malletts Bay Avenue, through the Winooski traffic circle and up Colchester Avenue into Burlington. The only rough moment was when some of the tree branches brushed against the traffic lights at the intersection of Colchester and Riverside avenues. The lights swayed dramatically for a moment, then righted themselves.

Before noon, the tree stood proudly on the Church Street Marketplace, waiting for people to wrap it in lights and decorations. No footballs or baseballs rained out of the tree. Maybe they’re still up there.